日本映画 & Deutsche Filme

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's Nos' super-concise foreign film review time! (Spoiler-free, of course.)

Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa - 1950

Kurosawa's many samurai films are mostly on an epic scale, with political struggles driving the plot and big battles, whereas Rashomon is focused on a much smaller conflict. The film's many perspectives of the same sequence of events force the viewer to consider what the truth really is, in the absence of an unbiased authority. Each character's viewpoint is seen along with their distortion of the facts, which makes their motives clear. This film evokes a very philosophical kind of thought, making you wonder who can really be trusted, and is recommended to viewers who like thinking that way.

Tokyo Gore Police - Yoshihiro Nishimura - 2008

Low budget, pulpy action films make an ideal evening's entertainment when drunk with friends, even if it's usually just to laugh at them. This one, however, makes an exception by being genuinely engaging and "so-bad-it's-brilliant" at the same time. I couldn't believe what I was seeing during its best scenes, leaving me literally speechless. It's a funny sort of gross-out, perverted freak show of a film, and easily the most violent thing I've ever seen. So avoid this if you're squeamish, of course, but otherwise give it a go if you really want to test the limits of what you think is possible to watch.

M - Fritz Lang - 1931

Made just after the advent of syncing recorded sound with moving image, this story of a German Police Department's attempt to catch a child murderer was one of the first sound films to specifically use audio cues to tell the story alongside silent film techniques. Peter Lorre, who plays the murderer, gives a mesmerising performance with the visuals reflecting his warped mind. It's a bit overlong, and probably worth a miss if you're trying to give up smoking (the main characters smoke a lot), but it still thrills despite its age. The moral message is also still as relevant as ever.

Fitzcarraldo - Werner Herzog - 1982

Herzog is a guerilla film maker, going for full authenticity by shooting entirely on location in exotic parts of the world, and often hiring the mad Klaus Kinski to play madman main characters; this film is no exception. Based on the true story of an Irish businessman's attempt to exploit South American natives, we see in Fitzcarraldo a real ship dragged by real tribespeople over a real Peruvian mountain. (Don't worry, they were paid for the work.) You may well burst out laughing when you see what it's all for in the end, or maybe you'll weep for humanity. Either way, it'll surprise you.